Iijjat se jeene ka,” says Gangubai Kathiawadi, brothel madam and mafia queen, to whistles and applause in a new film currently breaking all records for movies top-starring a female actor at the box office. “Kisi se darne ka nai.” This dictum—demand respect, be unafraid—pretty much sums up the emotion simmering in the hearts and minds of Indian women today. The signs are everywhere—in the Shaheen Bagh protests, where women led the way, in the Instagram reels of The Rebel Kid Apoorva and the songs of Neha Singh Rathore, in the burqa-clad girl defiantly shouting Allah-hu-Akbar at a crowd of blood-lusting bhakts, in the post-marriage film choices of Deepika Padukone, the frontline reports of Barkha Dutt, the courage of Priya Ramani, the Ramanajun prize for Mathematics for Neena Gupta, and the audacity and unapologetic ambition of Priyanka Chopra and Mamata Banerjee.
Girls growing up today have more heroes and role models than ever before. In almost every field, they can point a finger at a female hero and say, “Look, amma, look appa, that’s who I want to be. She did it, and I can, too.” With agonising slowness but undeniable inexorability, stellar examples of female achievement are starting to bloom in what used to be a pitchdark sky, with Gangubai shining like a chand (moon) in her white sari, and dawn imminent.
Of course, the damning statistics and the savage backlash against this surge is there for all of us to read in the newspapers every day. But every day the shame shifts just a little, the awareness increases infinitesimally, the agency increases, the fear decreases and hope springs eternal in the feminine breast.
Esta historia es de la edición March 13, 2022 de THE WEEK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición March 13, 2022 de THE WEEK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI